APPENDIX

Questions & Answers

1
course (perhaps in the 2nd century B.C.), the
Saturn
Romans became acquainted with Greek as-
1. When did we discover Saturn? tronomy and the Greek planetary names. The
Romans then rendered the Greek names to fit
We don’t know exactly when ancient observers
their own gods. This is the origin of the names
first recognized what we now call the planet
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the
Saturn. Many ancient civilizations were aware
names still in use 2,000 years later.
of five wandering points of light in the night
sky, which were later named for gods of Roman
mythology — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn. These planets were easily observed
with the unaided eye. It was not until the time
of Galileo, who first looked at the sky through a
telescope, that we observed these wandering
“stars” to be other worlds.

The planets outside Saturn’s orbit — Uranus,

Neptune, and Pluto — were discovered using
more modern telescopes, beginning with the dis-
covery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781.
The discovery of each of these outermost plan-
ets generated great public interest at the time
and made the discoverers famous.

2. How did Saturn get its name?

Nearly all ancient human cultures created
Saturn, the fearsome Roman god.
names for, and stories about the Sun, the Moon,
the planets and the stars. Like so many things in
3. Where is Saturn located?
history, the naming of the planets happened by
Saturn is the sixth planet out from the center of
accident. For example, the ancient Babylonians
our Solar System. It orbits the Sun at a distance
recognized five specks of light moving across the
of about 1.4 billion km (870 million mi). Sat-
night skies and believed that these specks were
urn is about 9.6 times as far from the Sun as is
the images of their most important gods. Not
Earth. Saturn is almost twice as far from the
surprisingly, they named the moving lights after
Sun as is Jupiter, the fifth planet in the Solar
these gods. When the Greeks (probably the
System.
Pythagoreans, in the 5th century B.C.) came
into contact with the Babylonian sky-lore, they
The Sun around which Saturn and the other
assigned to the five lights the names of those
planets orbit is one of hundreds of billions of
Greek gods corresponding most closely to the
stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The nearest star
appropriate Babylonian deities. The Greek
to the Sun, called Alpha Centauri, is more than
names of the five planets were: Hermes,
Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus, and Kronos. In due

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APPENDIX

1 JUPITER URANUS

EARTH
MERCURY

SUN NEPTUNE
MARS
SATURN
VENUS PLUTO

The Solar System (not to scale).

40 trillion km (25 trillion mi) away. Our Solar 54,000 km (33,480 mi) from its center to its
System is located a little more than half way north or south pole. Its volume is almost 760
from the center of the galaxy. The whole Solar times that of Earth.
System (Sun and planets) orbits the center of
the galaxy once about every 225 million years. Mass: Saturn’s mass is about 95 times Earth’s
The Milky Way galaxy is only one of an esti- mass. We know this by observing the orbital
mated 100 billion galaxies in the known Uni- motions of Saturn’s many moons. Using
verse. Each of these galaxies may have billions of Newton’s Law of Gravity and Kepler’s Laws, we
stars with planets around them — perhaps even can calculate a mass figure for Saturn that
some like Saturn. would create the gravitational force for the
moons to move as they do.
4. How old is Saturn?
Astronomers believe that the Sun and the plan-
ets of our solar system first formed from a swirl-
ing cloud of gas and dust about 4.6 billion years
ago. The Milky Way galaxy is older still, and the
Universe itself is believed to be between 10 and
20 billion years old. Astronomers predict that
the Sun will burn steadily for about another
5 billion years or so. Thus, in astronomical COMPARATIVE SIZE
OF EARTH
terms, the Sun and the planets orbiting around
it could be called “middle-aged.”
6. If Saturn is so much more massive than
5. How big is Saturn? Earth, why is it said that Saturn could float
in water?
Radius and Volume: Saturn is the second-largest
Even though Saturn is much more massive than
planet in our solar system; Jupiter is the largest.
Earth, this mass is spread throughout a much
Saturn measures about 60,000 km (37,200 mi)
from its center to its equator, but is only

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 larger volume than Earth and so Saturn is less
APPENDIX dense than Earth. Saturn is the least dense of all
the planets in the Solar System!
1 which the Sun and most stars are made. Such
Saturn’s average density is only 0.69 g/cm3,
which is less than that of water (1.0 g/cm3).
This means that a volume of water equal to the
volume of Saturn would weigh more than Sat-
urn does. So if we imagine a titanic tub of water
big enough to hold Saturn, Saturn’s weight
would be supported by the water and Saturn
would float! Of course, when the plug was
pulled and the water drained away, Saturn
might leave... a RING!
7. What is Saturn made of?
Like the other Jovian planets (Jupiter, Uranus,
and Neptune), Saturn is primarily a ball of gas
with no solid surface. According to studies
based on Voyager’s spectrometer, Saturn is made
up of about 94% hydrogen, 6% helium, and
small amounts of methane (CH4) and ammonia
(NH3). The primary components, hydrogen
and helium, are the same gases out of which the
Sun and most stars are made.
Detailed analysis of Saturn’s gravitational field
leads astronomers to believe that the deepest in-
terior of Saturn must consist of a molten rock
core about the same size as Earth, but much
more massive than Earth. This core is only a
small percentage of Saturn’s total mass.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
8. Could we breathe Saturn’s atmosphere?
No. Saturn’s atmosphere is composed mainly of
hydrogen and helium, the same gases out of
an atmosphere is not poisonous to humans, but
neither does it provide the oxygen needed to
sustain human life.
9. Pictures of Saturn show that it sort of
flattens out near the poles and is wider at
the equator. Why is that?
Indeed, Saturn is about 60,000 km (37,200 mi)
from center to equator, but only 54,000 km
(33,480 mi) from center to pole. The differ-
ence is 6000 km (3,720 mi), which is about the
radius of Earth! Saturn is thus said to be quite
oblate: the greater the difference between the
polar and equatorial distances, the more oblate
is the shape of the planet.
Saturn spins around its polar axis much faster
than Earth does. Though it is much larger than
Earth, Saturn rotates once in 10 hours 39 min-
utes, over twice as fast as Earth rotates. This
rapid rotation, combined with the planet’s gas-
eous composition, forces material outward near
the equator, just like a spinning merry-go-round
can push its riders toward the outside. The ob-
lateness of Saturn is actually less than would be
expected if it were composed only of hydrogen
and helium. This has led astronomers to believe
that Saturn may have a massive rocky core.
10. Why is Saturn so much larger and more
massive than Earth?
If we assume that the process of creation of the
Solar System involved a spinning disk of gas
and dust that slowly condensed to form the Sun
and the planets, the question becomes, “Why
was there so much more planet-building stuff in
the orbit of Saturn compared to the orbit of
Earth?” One idea is that at Saturn’s distant or-
bit, the cloud of gas and dust from which the
planets formed was cold enough for ice to
solidify out of the gas (instead of only rock).
227
 This extra ice makes a tremendous “seed” to
APPENDIX gather in more rock and ice, and to gravitation-
ally attract enormously more of the light gases
1 like hydrogen and helium to form planets and
moons.
11. Since Saturn does not have a solid sur-
face, would I sink to the middle of the planet
if I tried to walk there?
Saturn has an outer layer of clouds that we con-
sider the “edge” of the planet. At the top of
these clouds, the atmospheric pressure is the
same as that of air on Earth. Thus to walk there
would be like trying to walk on air. You would
indeed sink — or fall — through the layers of
Saturn’s interior. As you went deeper through
the planet’s atmosphere, the pressure would in-
crease and eventually you would be crushed.
12. What’s gravity like on Saturn? Would I
weigh the same on Saturn as on Earth?
The gravitational acceleration at the cloud tops
of Saturn is similar to that near the surface of
Earth — 10.4 m/sec2 for Saturn, compared to
9.8 m/sec2 on the surface of Earth. Thus, it
turns out you would feel about the same weight
in an airplane flying through the cloudtops of
Saturn as you would feel on the surface of
Earth. If you flew deeper into Saturn’s atmo-
sphere, gravity’s pull would increase and you
would feel heavier.
Your weight depends on your mass and on the
local acceleration of gravity. Your mass is the
same no matter where you are, but the accelera-
tion of gravity can be different. Therefore, your
weight depends on where you are in the Solar
System. For example, your weight would be
about 1/6 as much on the Moon as on Earth be-
cause the acceleration of gravity is six times less
on the Moon. Your mass, however, is exactly the
same on the Moon or on Earth.
13. What is the temperature on Saturn?
Astronomers have measured the temperature
near the cloudtops of Saturn to be about
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
–143 °C (–225 °F). This temperature increases
with depth because the gases are compressed to
dramatically greater pressures at depth. Com-
puter models predict that Saturn’s core is as hot
as 10,000 °C (18,000 °F).
Saturn is about 10 times as far from the Sun as
Earth is, so Saturn receives only about 1/100th
(1%) as much sunlight per square meter as does
Earth. Nevertheless, Saturn is warmer than
would be expected if there were a balance be-
tween the solar energy absorbed and the energy
emitted. Mysteriously, Saturn emits 80% more
energy than it absorbs from sunlight. Unlike the
rocky Earth and the more massive Jupiter, Sat-
urn should not have any heat left over from its
original formation. Thus, there must be a
source of heat inside Saturn producing the ex-
cess energy. One theory is that the energy comes
from the friction of liquid helium raining down
in the interior of the planet. Cassini scientists
will be exploring Saturn’s energy balance for an-
swers to this puzzle.
14. Does Saturn have winds and storms?
Yes, but the winds and storms on Saturn are
very different from those on Earth. The Voyager
spacecraft measured a giant jetstream near
Saturn’s equator with a fantastic eastward speed
of about 1,800 km/hr (1,100 mi/hr). By con-
trast, Earth’s jetstream flows eastward at about
400 km/hr (250 mi/hr).
Saturn also has “spots” which are like hurricanes
on Earth, except they are longer lived and much
larger. Saturn’s “spots” may last longer than
Earth’s hurricanes, which lose their source of
energy when they move over a solid surface. You
may notice from weather reports that hurricanes
generally lose their power as they move over
continents. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is the most
notable example of a long-lived hurricane on
another planet.
228

APPENDIX
1 layers of liquid hydrogen and helium, some-
Voyager image of storms on Saturn.
15. Since Saturn and Jupiter are both made
up of mostly hydrogen and helium, why isn’t
Saturn the same color as Jupiter?
Saturn is a world of white and pastel yellow
cloud layers, perhaps somewhat reminiscent of
the colors in a lemon meringue pie. Jupiter, by
contrast, displays bright yellows, oranges, and
reds in exotic swirls and storms.
17. Does Saturn have a magnetic field like
Earth’s?
Yes. Deep inside Saturn, probably in the deepest
thing is causing Saturn to act like a giant mag-
net. The same sort of thing happens in the hot
liquid iron core of Earth. On Earth, this mag-
netism causes compass needles to align with
Earth’s magnetic poles. The north-seeking end
of a compass needle used on Earth would actu-
ally point toward the south pole at Saturn! The
Pioneer 11 and Voyager spacecraft discovered
and explored Saturn’s substantial magnetic field.
Some of Cassini’s instruments will make a more
extensive exploration of Saturn’s magnetic field.
The Hubble Space Telescope has observed auro-
ras on Saturn. Auroras are caused when particles
streaming from the Sun interact with Saturn’s
magnetic field.

The colors of Saturn’s cloud layers are due to

the same basic cloud chemistry as on Jupiter.
Near the top of the atmosphere, ammonia be-
comes cold enough to crystallize into ice par-
ticle clouds, like very high cirrus clouds in
Earth’s skies. But Saturn is colder than Jupiter,
so the colorful ammonia cloud layers on Saturn
are deeper in the atmosphere. The hazy atmo-
sphere above the cloudtops is much thicker on
Saturn, so we do not see the more colorful
chemical layers below as we do on Jupiter. Al-
though bands and storms (like Jupiter’s Great
Red Spot) do exist on Saturn, they are harder
to see because the colors do not contrast as
much. The Hubble Space Telescope took this ultraviolet image of
Saturn’s aurora.

16. Is there life on Saturn?

18. How long is a day on Saturn?
Probably not. Extreme temperatures, and lack
A day on Earth is 24 hours long — the time it
of adequate water and oxygen make it highly
takes Earth to make one complete rotation rela-
unlikely that life as we know it exists anywhere
tive to the Sun. Saturn’s day is 10 hours 39 min-
in Saturn’s atmosphere.
utes — the time it takes Saturn to make one
complete rotation on its axis. Even though Sat-
urn is much larger than Earth, a Saturn day is
less than half as long as an Earth day.

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APPENDIX
1
Lowell Observatory
The photographs show the changes in Saturn’s appearance from Earth as Saturn moves around the Sun.
19. How long is a month on Saturn?
A calendar month on Earth is a bit longer than
the time it takes for the Moon to completely or-
bit Earth and go through a full set of moon
phases — about 29.5 days. Saturn has many
moons whose times to orbit Saturn vary from
half an Earth day to more than an Earth year;
therefore, no Saturn month has been formally
established. If a Saturn month were to be based
on its largest moon, Titan, which takes about
16 Earth days to orbit Saturn, then a Saturn
month would be 36 Saturn days long.
20. How long is a year on Saturn?
A year is the time it takes for Earth to make one
complete trip around the Sun, or about 365
Earth days. It takes Saturn 29.5 Earth years to
travel once around the Sun, so one Saturn year
is about 30 Earth years. If you were 15 Earth
years old, you would only be half a Saturn year
old because Saturn would only have made half
an orbit around the Sun since you were born!
(15/30 = 1/2 = 0.5 of a Saturn year old)
21. Does Saturn have seasons like Earth’s?
Yes, sort of. Earth has seasons because of the tilt
of its axis. Imagine a line drawn through Earth
from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line
always points toward the distant star Polaris, no
matter where Earth is in its orbit of the Sun.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
This means that during Earth’s trip around the
Sun each year, sometimes the northern hemi-
sphere is tilted toward the Sun, making daytime
longer so that the northern hemisphere receives
brilliant, direct light that causes warmer tem-
peratures (summer). Six months later, when
Earth is on the other side of the Sun, the north-
ern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun,
thus receiving less direct sunlight, causing
longer nights and colder temperatures (winter).
In both cases, the line between Earth’s poles
points toward the star Polaris.
Saturn has seasons in the sense that there are
times of its year when the northern hemisphere
is tilted toward the Sun, and times of its year
when the northern hemisphere is tilted away
from the Sun (with great ring viewing from
Earth). The series of photos above shows how
Saturn’s appearance changes as viewed from
Earth. But Saturn does not have dramatic sea-
sonal differences in temperature in the northern
and southern hemispheres as on Earth, nor do
the temperatures cool down during the night on
Saturn. Saturn’s internal heat source and the
way Saturn’s thick atmosphere retains heat make
the temperatures of Saturn’s atmosphere less de-
pendent on where the Sun is presently shining
on it.
230
 On Earth, a season only lasts about 3 months.
APPENDIX But since Saturn takes almost 30 Earth years to
go around the Sun, a Saturn season lasts more
1 than 7 years — about the same amount of time
it will take the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft to
get to Saturn!

The Planet Saturn, Arthur Francis O’Donel Alexander

Some people have the misconception that sea-
sons are caused by a planet changing its distance
in relation to the Sun. Although both Saturn
and Earth change distances to the Sun slightly
during their orbits, this has a very small effect
on their temperatures. Changing the distance to
the Sun does not explain why it’s winter in
North America while it’s summer in Australia: Early drawings of Saturn, originally from Systema Saturnium by
Earth is slightly closer to the Sun in January Huygens, 1659.
than it is in July.
“handles” or “ears.” Galileo speculated that
the bulges were features of the planet or per-
Rings
haps moons (he called them “lesser stars”). By
22. How did we first find out about Saturn’s 1616, he could draw more clearly the shapes
rings? he saw around Saturn, but did not know
In 1610, Galileo Galilei observed Saturn what they were. Galileo died not realizing
through a small telescope that magnified objects that he had been the first human to observe
about 30 times. He saw stationary “bulges” on Saturn’s rings.
either side of the planet that looked like
In 1655, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch as-
tronomer, observed Saturn using a better
Le Opera di Galileo Galilei, Edizione Nazionale

telescope than Galileo’s. Using his observa-

tions, and by studying the observations of
others, he proposed that Saturn has a flat ring
around its equator. Unlike Galileo, he could
see that the ring did not touch the planet. In
the same year, Huygens discovered Saturn’s
A 1616 drawing by Galileo. largest moon (named Titan 200 years after its
discovery).

In 1676, Jean-Dominique Cassini, an Italian-

French astronomer, used an even more pow-
erful telescope to discover that the ring that
Huygens saw had a gap in the middle. The
The Museon, Le Hague

inner ring would later come to be called the

B ring, and the outer one the A ring. The gap
between these brightest rings of Saturn was
Huygens’ drawing of Saturn, 1683.

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 named the Cassini Division. Cassini discovered
APPENDIX four moons of Saturn in addition to the one
that Huygens found: Iapetus (in 1671), Rhea (in
1 1672), and Tethys and Dione (in 1684). The
moons were named later. No one yet knew what
the rings were made of, how thick they were, or
if they were permanent features around Saturn.
23. What are the rings of Saturn made of?
Are they solid?
Saturn’s rings are made up of millions and mil-
lions of orbiting particles interacting with each
Wm. K. Hartmann
other and with Saturn’s moons. These particles
are composed mostly of water ice and some
rocky material. The icy particles’ sizes range
from that of specks of dust to “ringbergs” the
size of houses.
We first began to learn about the nature of the
rings when in 1857 James Clerk Maxwell, a
Scottish scientist who developed the theory of
electromagnetism (which predicted the speed of
light), proved mathematically that the rings en-
circling Saturn could not be a single, solid disk.

This artist’s concept represents a thinly populated locale in Saturn’s rings. The rendering shows rings viewed from just above the ring
plane. The largest ring particles shown here are house-sized. The large bodies are irregularly shaped and lie roughly in a flat layer;
smaller particles are scattered among them.

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 He proposed that the rings are instead made up
APPENDIX of many small particles. Observations by Ameri-
can astronomer James Keeler in 1895 proved
1 the truth of his prediction.
24. How many rings are there?
Saturn’s ring system has been divided into seven
main ring groupings. Astronomers have named
these main ring groupings the A, B, C, D, E, F,
and G rings. (See the illustration on page 234.)
The rings are not located in alphabetical order
because they were named in the order of their
discovery. From inner to outer, the rings are
named D, C, B, A, F, G, and E. One possible
way of remembering this is: Daring Cassini Be-
gins A Far Greater Exploration.
The two brightest rings easily seen through tele-
scopes from Earth are the A and B rings, which
are separated by the Cassini Division. The B
ring is closer to the planet than the A ring. The
faint C ring inside the B ring is barely visible
from Earth. The D ring is closest to the planet
A Voyager image showing the clumped and braided F ring.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
and has only been seen clearly by Voyager as the
spacecraft was looking back as it left the Saturn
system.
Saturn also has three other rings. Just outside
the A ring is the narrow F ring, discovered by
the Pioneer 11 spacecraft when it flew by Sat-
urn in 1979. This mysterious ring sometimes
contains clumps or “braids.” The clumps move,
and come and go with time. Next is the faint G
ring. This ring isn’t very bright and it is difficult
to see, even from Saturn. In fact, the G ring is
so thin that Voyager 2 actually flew through the
edge of the ring without damaging the space-
craft! Finally, there is a broad, faint ring called
the E ring. The moon called Enceladus may
have ice volcanoes or geysers that supply the E
ring with tiny ice particles. The Cassini mission
hopes to find out if this is true!
Depending on how you define an individual
ring, Saturn’s rings number in the thousands.
Voyager observed that the main rings (A, B, C)
233
APPENDIX G RING F RING E RING

1 A RING B RING

C RING D RING
Note: Saturn’s

rings consist of

individual
particles. The

relative density

of particles is

represented by

the spacing of
the circles within

each ring.

CASSINI DIVISION ENCKE GAP

EARTH MOON

APPROXIMATE DISTANCE BETWEEN EARTH AND ITS MOON

Saturn and its ring system shown to scale.

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 are composed of ringlets so numerous that the
APPENDIX ring system looks much like a phonograph
record, with thousands of thin grooves in it.
1
25. Do the rings move?
Yes, but not like a solid would move. The bits
and boulders of Saturn’s rings each orbit like
tiny moons. They move around Saturn in the
same direction as Saturn rotates and the same
direction as all the known moons (except the
outermost moon, Phoebe, which orbits in the
opposite direction). The ring particles closest to
Saturn whiz around the fastest, and those far-
ther away travel around at a slower speed (in
keeping with Kepler’s Laws).

Voyager close-up image of Saturn’s rings.

The orbital speed of a ring particle depends
only on its distance from Saturn’s center; it does
that is 4,600 km (2,900 mi) wide, called the
not depend on the particle’s mass or size. For
Cassini Division, but close-up images by Voy-
example, if a house-sized ring particle and a
ager showed that the Cassini Division contains
sugar grain–sized ring particle are both orbiting
many more ring particles than expected. There
at the inner edge of the B ring, they move at the
is a region in the Cassini Division near the
same speed around Saturn. However, ring par-
outer edge of the B ring that is relatively free of
ticles at the outer edge of the B ring orbit at a
ring particles. Near the outer edge of the A ring
slower speed. The particles of the innermost
there are two gaps almost empty of material: the
rings are moving around Saturn faster than Sat-
330 km (210 mi) Encke Gap, and the 35 km
urn rotates.
(22 mi) Keeler Gap. The best places to fly
through the rings might be in gaps such as
Ring particles can also move randomly in other
these.
directions, such as perpendicular to the rings.
These motions are usually damped out quickly
The rings have more empty space than ring
by collisions or gravitational interaction be-
particles, even in the brightest B ring, which
tween the particles. If you wait a much longer
contains most of the mass of Saturn’s rings
time (millions of years), some of the rings may
(2.8 × 1019 kg). But this doesn’t mean you
spread out and eventually disappear.
could fly through from top to bottom without
26. In the opening sequence of the TV show
hitting any of the particles. Even if you had a
Star Trek: Voyager, a ship passes through tiny spacecraft a few centimeters across, it
the rings of Saturn. Do the rings contain would be unlikely that it could pass through the
more empty space or more solid particles?
A or B rings without being hit by ring particles.
Most of the volume of the rings is empty space. The particle impacts would not be gentle
Each of the main rings (A, B, and C) contain nudges, but chunks hitting the spacecraft at
different densities of particles. The B ring is the relative speeds “faster than a speeding bullet”! At
densest, followed by the A ring, and then the C this speed, even a millimeter-sized particle
ring. The A and B rings are separated by a gap might be enough to damage Cassini, but the

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 spacecraft will not be flying in regions of the
APPENDIX rings where many particles like these exist. The
probability of Cassini being hit by such a par-
1 ticle is less than 1%. When Voyager 2 flew
through the edge of the G ring in 1981, instru-
ments recorded hits by tiny dust particles less
than 1 mm in size. Voyager made it through
without any damage.
27. How big are the rings?
Saturn’s ring system is both very broad and very
thin. The inner edge of the rings begins ap-
proximately 6,700 km (4,200 mi) from the
cloudtops of Saturn. The outer edge of the A
ring is at approximately 76,500 km (47,600 mi)
from the cloudtops of Saturn. The outer edge of
the outermost ring (the E ring) has been mea-
sured out to about 420,000 km (260,000 mi)
from Saturn’s cloudtops. This distance is greater
than that between Earth and the Moon —
384,000 km (242,000 mi). It is likely that the
rings extend even farther from Saturn in an
ever-diminishing zone of fine, icy dust.
In terms of thickness from top to bottom, the
bright A and B rings may be as thin as a hun-
dred meters — the length of a football field. At
its outer edge, the E ring increases in thickness
to several thousand kilometers.
Note: Saturn’s EARTH
rings consist of
APPROXIMATE DISTANCE
individual
particles. The
relative density
of particles is
represented by
the spacing of
the circles within
each ring.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
28. How much stuff is in the rings?
If all the material in Saturn’s rings were col-
lected together, it would form a moon about
the size of Saturn’s moon Mimas, which is
392 km (244 mi) across. This is about 9 times
smaller than the diameter of Earth’s Moon.
Scientists estimate the mass of Mimas to be
4 × 1019 kg, or about 1,800 times less massive
than Earth’s Moon.
The majority of the mass of the rings is in par-
ticles from a few centimeters to a few meters in
size — neither very large nor very small. This is
because there are very few really big particles in
the rings, and the mass of the dust is very small,
so the biggest and smallest particles do not con-
tribute very much to the overall mass.
There is far less mass in Saturn’s rings than is
found in the asteroid belt between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter. Furthermore, the asteroids are
made of rock and iron, substances which are
many times denser than the water ice out of
which Saturn’s rings are made.
29. Do ring particles collide?
Yes, there are several types of forces that can al-
ter a ring particle’s normal orbital path, causing
it to collide with neighboring particles. Saturn’s
rings represent an ever-changing, dynamic sys-
MOON
236

APPENDIX
1 ice chunks spread out into the complex ring sys-
A Voyager image of “spokes” in Saturn’s rings.
tem of particles which evolves with time. Un-
derstanding that change is one of Cassini’s goals
as it studies the rings.
Saturn’s moons are important gravitational in-
fluences that can cause ring particles to move
out of their normal circular orbits. The orbit of
a ring particle becomes circular once again
through collisions with other ring particles, and
the ring particle may end up in a slightly differ-
ent orbit from the one it was in before it got a
“kick” from the moon. These “kicks” occur at
specific locations in the rings and can actually
cause large “waves” or “knots” to form in the
rings.
Saturn’s magnetic field can also cause the small-
est ring particles to alter their orbits, causing
collisions with other ring particles. The smallest
particles are easiest to electrically charge, and
once charged, they can be lifted above the rings
by Saturn’s magnetic field. This is one of the
most popular theories for what causes the mys-
terious B ring “spokes” that were discovered by
the Voyager spacecraft.
30. Why does Saturn have rings? How were
the rings made?
The rings probably formed primarily because
one or more small moons broke up close to Sat-
urn. This breakup could have been the result of
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
a collision with a comet or asteroid, or with an-
other moon in close orbit around Saturn. Over
millions of years, the moon bits and cometary
tem that exists today.
Ring formation can also start or be sped up if a
large enough moon, asteroid, or comet comes
close enough to Saturn that the gravitational
pull of Saturn gently breaks it apart. This can
happen when the difference between gravity’s
pull on the side facing Saturn and its pull on
the side facing away from Saturn is enough to
tear the object apart. After it is pulled apart, the
smaller particles will begin to collide with each
other and with preexisting ring particles. This
slowly grinds them down in size and spreads
them out, gradually adding to Saturn’s rings.
31. How old are the rings? Has Saturn always
had rings? Will it always have rings?
Using data collected by NASA’s Pioneer and
Voyager spacecraft, scientists have estimated
that Saturn’s rings are “only” 100 million years
old, a small fraction of the 4.6 billion years the
Solar System has existed. It is possible that the
rings come and go. They might be constantly
renewed and reformed over time by internal
collisions and by the addition of comets or as-
teroids that are captured as they pass close to
Saturn. If we were to come back and visit Sat-
urn in a billion years, the faint rings may be
gone completely, and an entirely new ring sys-
tem formed in their place.
The E ring may be younger than the A and B
rings. Scientists have speculated about how ma-
terial in the E ring might come from small dust
or ice particles knocked loose from Saturn’s icy
moons. It is also possible that Enceladus may
have water volcanoes or geysers constantly feed-
ing the E ring with new dust-sized ice particles.
Enceladus’ bright young surface and apparent
episodes of surface melting are evidence of heat
sources that could also generate volcanism.
237
 The Cassini spacecraft will learn more about the
APPENDIX unusual ring system of Saturn. It is now appar-
ent that Saturn’s rings are complex, dynamic,
1 and constantly evolving things.
32. Are there other planets with rings?
Yes! The Voyager spacecraft saw rings at Jupiter,
Uranus, and Neptune. However, the rings of
these planets are all much fainter than Saturn’s
and have only recently been discovered. In
1977, observers using a telescope aboard an air-
plane flying high over the South Atlantic Ocean
discovered a series of narrow rings around Ura-
nus. These rings appear to be made of very dark
particles, unlike the bright, icy particles of
Saturn’s rings. In 1979, Voyager 1 discovered a
faint, dusty ring around Jupiter. Neptune’s ring
system was first detected in 1984, when as-
tronomers on the ground noticed that the light
from a distant star dimmed slightly as the Nep-
tune system moved in front of it. This suggested
a ring system or unknown moons orbiting the
planet. Voyager 2 later flew by Uranus and Nep-
tune and returned stunning images of these
planets’ rings.
Although all the giant gaseous planets are now
known to have rings, none has a ring system
A Voyager image of Saturn casting its shadow across the rings.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
that compares with the size and grandeur of
Saturn’s. Saturn really is “Lord of the Rings”!
Some scientists believe that Mars may have a
very faint ring system associated with its tiny,
dusty moons Phobos and Deimos. A future
spacecraft mission to Mars might be able to de-
tect these rings, if they exist.
33. Why doesn’t Earth have rings?
The small inner planets may have had rings in
the past and may have rings again in the future.
One prevalent theory says that ring systems are
much younger than the age of the Solar System,
and as such, may come and go with time. If
Earth had rings in the past — for example,
from the breakup of a comet or asteroid that
came too close — then those rings may have
spread out and disappeared long ago. Earth
might have a ring in the future if a comet or as-
teroid passes Earth in just the right orientation
to be broken apart by Earth’s gravity rather than
disintegrating in Earth’s atmosphere.
Our Moon is too distant to provide material for
a future Earth ring; however, the Moon may
have formed from a huge, very short-lived ring
of material encircling Earth. Such a ring would
have been formed if a huge body — the size of
238
 Mars or larger — hit Earth, spewing huge
APPENDIX amounts of debris into orbit around our planet.
In a very short time, this debris would gather
1 together to form the Moon.
34. If Earth had rings like Saturn’s, what
would they look like from the ground?
If you were to scale down Saturn and its ring
system so that Saturn was the size of Earth, the
outer edge of the A ring would stretch about
6,400 km (4,000 mi) from Earth’s surface. The
rings would look quite different in the sky de-
pending on the latitude at which you were
standing, the time of year, and the time of day.
You would also have to be sure to look at the
rings at a time of day when the Sun was shining
on them. Noontime would be best. Earlier or
later in the day, the east or west edges of the
rings might be blocked by Earth’s shadow falling
on them. If you looked at midnight, the rings
would be mostly blacked out from being in
Earth’s shadow. Many Voyager pictures show
Saturn’s shadow on the rings.
So, if Earth had rings like Saturn’s, they would
appear exceptionally beautiful on the summer
solstice from midlatitudes at noon.

If you were standing on Earth’s equator, you Moons

would have to look directly overhead to see the
35. How many moons does Saturn have?
rings. The rings would only appear as a thin
At least 18 moons orbit Saturn. Until recently,
line running across the sky from east to west,
Saturn was the moon champion, recognized as
because the rings would orbit nearly over
having more than any other planet in the Solar
Earth’s equator. If you were standing at a higher
System. However, astronomers have announced
latitude in the northern hemisphere, you would
discoveries of additional moons around Uranus,
have to look to the south to see Earth’s rings.
bringing that planet’s total to 20 if the observa-
The rings would form an arching band across
tions are confirmed. There are probably many
much of the sky. If you were standing all the
additional small moons amidst Saturn’s rings,
way at the North Pole, you would not be able
and the Cassini mission may find some of them.
to see any rings at all, because they would be
below your southern horizon.
Saturn’s 18 moons are listed in the table on
page 240, along with their distances from the
If you were standing about halfway between the
center of Saturn, orbital periods (time to go once
equator and the North Pole, the rings would
around Saturn), sizes, and notable features. The
appear different depending on what time of
smallest moons (Pan, Atlas, Prometheus,
year you looked. In the summer, Earth’s tilt
Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Telesto, Calypso,
would orient the rings toward the Sun and you
Helene, Hyperion, Phoebe) have irregular
would see sunlight reflected directly off the top
shapes. For these moons, an average “radius” has
side of the rings. But during the winter, the
been calculated by averaging measurements of
Sun would be shining more directly on Earth’s
their sizes in three dimensions. The larger moons
southern hemisphere, and thus the rings would
(Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus,
be lit up from the bottom side! In that case,
Mimas) are very close to being spheres.
you would see some light pass through the
rings, but they wouldn’t appear as brilliantly lit
Just like Earth’s Moon, most of Saturn’s moons
as during summer.
rotate at the same rate as they revolve around
Saturn, and thus keep the same face toward Sat-
urn. This also means the moons always have one

239
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
 Saturn’s Moons
APPENDIX
Distance
1 from Center
of Parent
Period of
Orbit Around
Average
Radius
Name (km × 1,000) Parent (hours) (km) Special Features or Behavior

Pan 133.6 13.85 10 Orbits in Encke Gap, sweeping it clean.

Atlas 137.6 14.42 16 May keep outer edge of A ring well-
defined.
Prometheus 139.4 14.71 53 Shepherd moon; helps keep the F ring
narrow.
Pandora 141.7 15.07 43 Shepherd moon; helps keep the F ring
narrow.
Epimetheus 151.4 16.68* 60 Irregular; may have been joined with
Janus.
Janus 151.5 16.68* 90 Irregular; trades orbits with Epimetheus.
Mimas 185.5 22.61 199 Has giant crater, Herschel; looks like
“Death Star” battle station from movie.
Enceladus 238.0 32.88 249 Icy, shiny; may have ice geysers that feed
the E ring.
Tethys 294.7 45.31 530 Has large trench, Ithaca Chasma; also
a large crater, Odysseus.
Telesto 294.7 45.31 12 Co-orbital with Tethys, 60º behind.
Calypso 294.7 45.31 10 Co-orbital with Tethys, 60º ahead.
Dione 377.4 65.69 560 Cratered leading face; wispy features on
trailing hemisphere.
Helene 377.4 65.69 18 Co-orbital with Dione, 60º ahead.
Rhea 527.0 108.42 764 Largest icy satellite; densely cratered.
Titan 1,221.9 382.69 2,575 Largest moon of Saturn; second-largest
moon in Solar System; only moon with
a dense atmosphere.
Hyperion 1,481.1 510.64 144 Irregular, dark surface; chaotic tumbling
orbit.
Iapetus 3,561.3 1,903.92 718 Much darker leading hemisphere; lighter
trailing hemisphere.
Phoebe 12,952 13,211 110 Retrograde orbit; may be captured
asteroid.

Earth’s Moon

The Moon 384.5 665.73 1,738 Rocky, cratered, mountainous; prominent

flat, dark areas called maria on Earth-
facing side (probably lava flows follow-
ing huge, ancient cratering events).
* The orbital periods for Epimetheus and Janus are slightly different but round off to the same value

240
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 side that faces toward the direction of their mo-
APPENDIX tion around Saturn, and one side that faces
away from their direction of motion. These are
1 called the leading and trailing hemispheres.
36. Who discovered all these moons?
In 1655, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astrono-
mer, observed Saturn through a telescope and
discovered Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, al-
though it wouldn’t be named this for another
200 years. Titan’s diameter is about 5,150 km
(3,200 mi), or 1.5 times as large as than the
diameter of Earth’s Moon — 3,500 km (2,200
mi). Titan is the second-largest moon in the
Solar System — Jupiter’s Ganymede is the larg-
est. Both Titan and Ganymede are larger than
the planets Mercury and Pluto. Titan and
Ganymede are defined as moons because they
orbit planets, while Mercury and Pluto are de-
fined as planets because they orbit the Sun.
Later in the 1600s, the Italian–French astrono-
mer Jean-Dominique Cassini discovered four
more moons of Saturn: Iapetus (1671), Rhea
(1672), and Tethys and Dione (1684). Not sur-
prisingly, these moons were Saturn’s next larg-
est, with diameters ranging from 1,400 km
(870 mi) for Tethys to 1,500 km (960 mi) for
Rhea. Cassini noted that when Iapetus was on
one side of Saturn, it could be easily seen; how-
ever, when it was on the other side of its orbit,
it was invisible. He correctly deduced that
Iapetus was keeping the same side always to-
ward Saturn, and that one side of the moon (its
leading hemisphere) was much darker than the
other side (its trailing hemisphere).
In 1789, William Herschel in England discov-
ered moons of Saturn that would later be
named Mimas and Enceladus. These moons
have even smaller diameters: about 500 km
(310 mi) for Enceladus and 400 km (250 mi)
for Mimas.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
In 1848, astronomers William Bond and
George Bond (father and son) of Harvard Col-
lege discovered Hyperion, with a diameter of
290 km (180 mi). The very same night, Will-
iam Lassell of England also discovered it with
his telescope. In 1898, William Pickering, also
of Harvard, discovered Phoebe, with a diameter
of 220 km (140 mi). Phoebe was the first moon
discovered using photography, rather than by
looking directly through a telescope’s eyepiece.
The innermost four moons (Pan, Atlas,
Prometheus, and Pandora), which are inter-
twined with Saturn’s A and F rings, were not
discovered until Voyager 1 flew past Saturn in
1980. Pan, in fact, eluded discovery until even
after Voyager. It was not until 1991 that as-
tronomer Mark Showalter searched through
Voyager images of the narrow, clear Encke Gap
in Saturn’s A ring and found Pan.
The rest of Saturn’s currently known moons
were discovered by observers on Earth during
the 1966 and 1980 ring-plane crossings, when
Saturn’s thin rings were seen edge-on from
Earth. With the rings temporarily not visible
from Earth, faint objects near the planet are
easier to see. During the 1966 ring-plane cross-
ing, Audoin Dollfus discovered Janus, and John
Fountain and Steve Larson discovered its com-
panion, Epimetheus. Telesto, Calypso, and
Helene were discovered by three different
Hubble Space Telescope images of the 1995 ring-plane crossing.
241
 groups of astronomers during the 1980 ring-
APPENDIX plane crossing.
1 Ring-plane crossings occur about every
15 years. Like Earth’s North Pole, Saturn’s
north pole is tilted with respect to the plane of
its orbit, and this causes our view of the rings
to change as Saturn travels in its 30-year orbit
around the Sun. Ring-plane crossings occur
near Saturn’s equinoxes when the planet’s tilt is
neither toward nor away from the Sun.
The gravity of Prometheus and Pandora keeps the F ring
particles confined to a very narrow ring.
In 1995, astronomers using the Hubble Space
Telescope announced that they had discovered
two — perhaps even four — previously un-
known moons. Amanda Bosh and Andrew
Rivkin spotted what appeared to be new moons
of Saturn in photographs they made during the
ring-plane crossing. Two of the “newly discov-
ered moons” in the photos turned out to be the
previously known moons Atlas and Prometheus,
but they were at different positions than pre-
dicted by previous estimates of their orbits.
Careful analysis of the remaining two moons
showed that they were at the distance of the
F ring, and appeared to change shape as they or-
bited Saturn. These objects are now believed
not to be moons, but rather “clumps” of ring
material within the F ring. Bosh was not disap-
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
pointed that the “moons” turned out not to be
moons after all. Astronomers were still excited,
because this was the first time the F ring clumps
had been seen from Earth.
37. How did the moons get their names?
In the mid-1800s, English astronomer John
Herschel (son of William Herschel, who had
discovered two moons of Saturn) wrote that it
would not be right to name the moons of Sat-
urn after Saturn’s children. In Roman mythol-
ogy, Saturn ate all his children. Instead, said
Herschel, Saturn’s moons should be named after
Saturn’s brothers, the Titans, and Saturn’s sis-
ters, the Titanesses. These were mythological
giants who were believed to rule in the heavens
before Jupiter conquered them. Astronomers
accepted Herschel’s suggestion for naming the
moons. Because the moon discovered by
Huygens was so much larger than the rest, they
chose to name it Titan rather than naming it af-
ter one of the giants. For more information, see
Discussion 4 — Mythology of Saturn, page 219.
38. Are Saturn’s moons like Earth’s Moon?
Yes and no. Many of them are covered with im-
pact craters like our Moon, but the moons of
Saturn are made up of much more water ice
than Earth’s moon. Earth’s Moon may have very
tiny patches of ice, but almost all its mass is
rock. Because of this, most of Saturn’s moons
are about one-third the density of our Moon.
Titan’s density is a little higher, but still only
about half as dense as Earth’s Moon. Saturn’s
outermost moon, Phoebe, may be a captured as-
teroid, in which case it would likely have a
much higher density.
Titan is the only one of Saturn’s moons that is
larger and more massive than our Moon. All the
rest are significantly smaller and less massive,
and many of them are irregularly shaped rather
than spherical. (See the table on page 240 for
comparisons.) Also, unlike our Moon, and un-
242
 like all of the other 60 or so moons in the Solar
APPENDIX System, Titan has a thick atmosphere.
1 39. Why does Saturn have so many moons,
but Earth has only one?
Here again, astronomers can make some edu-
cated guesses. There is more planet-building
“stuff ” at Saturn’s orbital distance than at Earth’s
orbital distance. This is because Saturn’s orbit is
so far from the Sun that ice becomes a substan-
tial source of planet-building material. The
more planet-building material, the more mate-
rial for forming moons around the planet. Many
of Saturn’s moons and rings are composed
largely of ice. Saturn may also have moons that
are captured asteroids. This is the most likely
origin for Saturn’s outermost moon, Phoebe,
and the Cassini spacecraft will make an investi-
gation of this on its way into the Saturn system.
Earth’s Moon is unusually large relative to the
size of its parent planet. The diameter of Earth
is less than 4 times larger than the Moon’s diam-
eter. By contrast, Saturn’s diameter is nearly 25
times greater than Titan’s diameter. Thus, Earth’s
Moon is far too large, compared with the size of
Earth, to have been formed as an original moon
from the spinning disk of gas and dust that
formed the planet. The present Moon was most
likely formed as a result of a tremendous colli-
sion between Earth and a huge asteroid the size
of Mars or larger, which broke apart Earth and
created the Moon. This impact may have actu-
ally created multiple moons around Earth,
which later collided with each other or Earth,
and now we are left with one large moon.
40. Are Saturn’s moons in the rings? Do the
moons collide with the ring particles?
One small moon has been found orbiting within
the main rings (A, B, C). This moon, named
Pan, orbits in the Encke Gap, near the outer
edge of the A ring. Pan sweeps the gap clear of
the smaller ring particles, thereby maintaining
the gap. If Pan disappeared, so would the Encke
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
Gap. Scientists suspect that other moons are
lurking in the Saturn system, creating some of
the other gaps in the main rings. Cassini may
find these moons during its mission.
Collisions between ring particles occur fre-
quently in the main rings, and ring particles
can easily be knocked into a new orbit by these
collisions. If a moon collided with a large
enough ring particle, the moon could be frac-
tured or lost within existing ring material. In ei-
ther case, it might no longer be identifiable as a
separate moon.
Saturn’s E, F, and G rings orbit outside the
main rings. The outermost ring — the E ring
— is the most extended. Enceladus moves
through the E ring, and it may have ice volca-
noes that are responsible for producing the
ring’s tiny particles of ice. The G ring is so thin
that it would probably disappear quickly if it
did not have several small moons orbiting
within it and producing particles. No one has
yet seen these probable G ring moons — per-
haps the Cassini spacecraft will!
41. What’s the difference between a moon
and a ring particle?
The rings are nothing more than a dense swarm
of tiny, interacting moons. In principle, you
could find an orbit for every ring particle
around Saturn if the particles did not interact
with one another and change orbits slightly.
Different kinds of forces act on ring particles of
all sizes and modify their orbits. If you cannot
track an object and predict its orbital path, you
might call it a ring particle rather than a moon.
The orbits of the largest particles in the rings
probably change the least. However, we do not
have much data on this question since the larg-
est “ring particle” Voyager imaged was Pan, and
we don’t know how Pan’s orbit may be chang-
ing with time. Cassini will provide a wealth of
new data on Pan and will probably discover
243
 new moons embedded in the rings. You might
ask: At what size something is no longer a moon
APPENDIX
but is just a “ring particle”? There’s no clear dis-
1 tinction. Suppose the ring particles sometimes
stick together in larger collections of many par-
ticles, and sometimes break apart via collisions.
In this case, do some “moons” come and go?
There really is no sharp cutoff between a moon
and a ring particle (or “ringberg”). The smaller
the moon, the harder it is for it to maintain
an empty gap around Saturn. We think that
smaller “moons” might clear small areas that are
then filled in with ring particles after the
“moon” has passed by. However, maintaining a
gap depends in part on the density of ring par-
ticles in the region in which the moon orbits.
Denser regions like the A or B rings would re-
quire a larger moon to maintain a gap than a
much more diffuse region such as the C ring.
Hence, defining a moon as an object that main-
tains a gap in the rings would produce differing
cutoffs in moon sizes for each ring region.
It will be interesting to see just what definitions
evolve once Cassini begins making its closer ex-
amination of Saturn’s rings!
42. What’s gravity like on Saturn’s moons?
Could we walk there?
Titan’s gravity is a bit less than that of Earth’s
Moon, which has 1/6 the surface gravity of
Earth. Someone who weighs 110 pounds on
Earth would weigh only 20 pounds on the
Moon, and 15 pounds on Titan. Just think how
easy it would be to jump over a 6-foot high
fence! The person’s mass, 50 kg, would be the
same on both Earth, the Moon, and Titan.
To compute the surface gravity for a moon, you
need to know the moon’s size and mass. For sev-
eral moons, we only have guesses for these num-
bers. Many moons are oddly shaped, so
depending on where you stood, you would
weigh a different amount.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
43. Are there volcanoes on any of Saturn’s
moons?
Although the evidence is circumstantial, it is
possible that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has water
volcanoes or geysers, active today or in the re-
cent past. Cassini plans close flybys of
Enceladus to search for direct evidence of such
volcanoes. Some scientists believe that volcanoes
on Enceladus are the source of particles in
Saturn’s E ring. Because Titan is so large, it is
possible it may have a warm, active core that
also causes volcanoes on its surface. The
Huygens probe will help us see if any volcanoes
exist on Titan.
Artist’s rendition of ice geysers on Enceladus.
44. How cold are Saturn’s moons?
Saturn’s moons and rings are even colder than
Saturn, with surface temperatures ranging from
–145 °C to –220 °C (–230 °F to –365 °F). The
brightest moons are the coldest, because they
reflect almost all the Sun’s light, rather than ab-
sorbing it.
45. Do any of Saturn’s moons have an
atmosphere? Could we breathe it?
Among Saturn’s moons, only Titan has a thick
atmosphere. Titan’s atmosphere is mainly nitro-
gen, like Earth’s, but it does not have enough
oxygen for humans to breathe. Gerard Kuiper
[KOY-per], a Dutch-born American astrono-
mer, first discovered Titan’s atmosphere in 1944
using a spectrometer that detected infrared light
(heat). This instrument was attached to a tele-
scope with an 82-inch mirror. Many gases are
hard to detect using visible light, but much
easier to detect using infrared. Kuiper detected
244
 the presence of methane gas. Before Voyager 1’s 46. Is there water on Titan?

APPENDIX flyby of Titan in 1980, only methane and a few If there is water on Titan, it is probably fro-
other simple chemicals called hydrocarbons had zen solid at the bottom of lakes or oceans of
1 been detected on Titan. liquid hydrocarbons like ethane and meth-
ane. However, like most of Saturn’s other
Observations from the Voyager spacecraft using moons, much of Titan’s interior is probably
radio waves and infrared light indicated that water ice.
Titan’s deep atmosphere was composed mostly
of nitrogen — at least 90%, compared to the 47. Is there life on Titan?
Earth’s 79%. Most of the remainder of Titan’s With detectable organic compounds like
atmosphere is methane. On Earth, methane is methane in the atmosphere, it is very natural
found bubbling out of marshes or swamps. Voy- to wonder whether life exists there now, ex-
ager 1 also determined that Titan’s atmosphere is isted there in the past, or might yet exist
nearly 10 times as deep as Earth’s. However, be- there in the future. Few people believe that
cause Titan’s gravity is weaker, the atmospheric life as we know it currently exists on Titan,
pressure on Titan is only about 50% higher than because of the extreme cold and the lack of
on Earth. oxygen and liquid water. However, the envi-
ronment is in some ways similar to that of
Some of Saturn’s other moons may have ex- the early Earth, and it is possible that Titan
tremely thin atmospheres, but these have not yet could teach us something about how life be-
been detected. gan on Earth.

EARTH TITAN
60 600
160

NITROGEN
280 50 500 METHANE
ARGON (?)
NITROGEN
OXYGEN
ARGON 40 400

Temperature, kelvins
Altitude, kilometers
Altitude, kilometers
Temperature, kelvins

30 300
THIN HAZE LAYER
240 THICK
PHOTOCHEMICAL HAZE
OZONE 20 200 160

PARTICULATE RAIN?
210 10 100 120

60 72
METHANE
WATER 95
290

Comparison of atmospheric cross-sections of Earth and Titan. Note the difference in vertical scale — while both Earth
and Titan have atmospheres composed primarily of nitrogen and the surface pressures are similar, the atmosphere of
Titan is much more extended because of its low gravity.

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Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
 48. What is the weather like on Titan?
APPENDIX We know it is very cold on Titan, and that the
atmospheric pressure at the surface is 1.5 times
1 that of Earth, but we are not at all certain
about the motions (winds and storms) in
Titan’s atmosphere. Titan turns very slowly, so
a day on Titan is almost 16 Earth days long.
There are 192 hours of dim sunlight followed
by 192 hours of darkness. Temperatures prob-
ably do not change much from day to night.
Titan is nearly 10 times as far from the Sun as
Earth is, and temperatures there hover around -
180 °C (–292 °F)!
Several of the experiments on the Huygens
probe, which will descend through Titan’s at-
mosphere during the Cassini mission, are de-
signed to detect various aspects of Titan’s
weather, such as temperature, pressure, and
wind speed.
49. Cassini carries a probe that is going to
Titan and not Saturn or any of the other
moons. Why Titan?
Saturn’s atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and
helium. While this is interesting in its own
right, Titan, with its nitrogen atmosphere and
mysterious surface features, is extraordinarily
intriguing for several reasons. Titan and the
Earth are the only two bodies in the Solar Sys-
tem with thick nitrogen atmospheres. Titan
is the only body where cold, exotic lakes of
ethane and methane are believed to exist. Liq-
uid ethane exists between the temperatures of
–183 °C (–297 °F), where it freezes, and
–89 °C (–128 °F), where it boils. Some scien-
tists believe Titan’s environment is similar to
that of Earth before life began on our planet.
Titan is a unique place, and a great way to ex-
plore it is to visit it! In previous flyby missions,
Pioneer 11 visited the Saturn system in 1979,
Voyager 1 visited in 1980, and Voyager 2 vis-
ited in 1981, but none of these spacecraft
could see through the haze in Titan’s atmo-
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
Artist’s concept of the Huygens probe landing on Titan.
sphere to determine what the surface looked
like. We now anticipate what the Cassini mis-
sion might be able to do with the cameras and
instruments aboard the Huygens probe. We
wonder what Titan’s landscape will be like. Will
it have mountains of ice? Mysterious lakes? Or-
ganic goo covering its surface?
50. Will there be a mission that takes hu-
mans to Titan in the near future?
None are currently planned. Because of Saturn’s
great distance from Earth, we would be more
likely to send humans to nearer destinations,
such as the Moon, Mars, or an asteroid, before
sending humans to Titan.
Observing Saturn in the Sky
51. Can I see Saturn in the sky at night?
Yes! Saturn normally appears as an unflickering
yellowish point of light about as bright or
brighter than stars in the Big Dipper. From
Earth’s northern hemisphere, Saturn appears to
the south, slowly moving along the same arc in
the sky as do the Moon, the Sun, and the rest of
the planets. There are always times of the year
when Saturn is not visible in the night sky. This
is because Earth is on the other side of the Sun
from Saturn, and so Saturn is in the sky during
the daytime. During the cruise phase of the
Cassini mission (1997–2004), Saturn will be
246
 best visible in the sky during the winter. You
APPENDIX can use astronomy magazines and many World
Wide Web sites to find information about lo-
1 cating Saturn in the night sky. See the Appen-
dices for information on resources.
In Appendix 3, there is a table of information
about where Saturn appears in the night sky
over the course of the Cassini mission (1997–
2008). At Cassini’s launch date of 15 October
1997, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter were easily
visible in the night sky, but when Cassini ar-
rives at Saturn on 1 July 2004, Saturn will not
be visible in the night sky. On its way to Sat-
urn, Cassini does two flybys of Venus, one of
Earth, and one of Jupiter. (These flybys provide
gravity assists to help the spacecraft reach Sat-
urn by July 2004.) Venus was easy to see in the
night sky during the Cassini flybys, and Jupiter
will also be visible in the sky when Cassini
passes by in December 2000. After the Sun and
Moon, these two planets are the next-brightest
objects in the sky.
52. Can I see Saturn’s rings from Earth?
You cannot see the rings with the unaided eye,
but the rings are easily visible if you peer
through a telescope with a magnification of 30
times or more. Such a telescope typically uses a
mirror or lens several inches across to focus the
light from Saturn. You can purchase a quality
telescope for several hundred dollars, or build
your own from kits available through catalogs.
(Beware of cheap telescopes.) A larger telescope
and a more powerful eyepiece would enable
you to view more detail, such as some of the
larger moons (which appear as small points of
light near Saturn), the Cassini Division be-
tween the A and B rings, and bands in the at-
mosphere of Saturn.
There are times when Saturn is observable, but
the orientation of Saturn’s tilt is such that its
rings seem to disappear. When Saturn is at a
place in its orbit around the Sun where this tilt
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
has the north pole tipped toward the Sun, the
rings are illuminated on the north (top) side.
When Saturn is at a place in its orbit where this
tilt has the south pole tipped toward the Sun,
the rings are illuminated on the south (bottom)
side. At the beginning of Saturn’s summer and
winter (i.e., at the solstices), when the poles are
most tipped toward the Sun, the rings are most
open as seen from Earth. The rings close with
respect to the Sun at the beginning of Saturn’s
spring and autumn (i.e., the equinoxes). At
these times, the poles are tipped neither toward
nor away from the Sun, and the rings appear ex-
actly edge-on, becoming nearly invisible to
Earth observers for a short time. This event is
called a ring-plane crossing, and it is a good
time to look for Saturn’s moons and to measure
the thickness of the rings.
The last ring-plane crossing occurred in 1995–
96. The Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope,
as well as telescopes all over the world, took ad-
vantage of these few days to observe Saturn
from this rare perspective. Saturn ring-plane
crossings occur about every 15 years, but the
next two ring-plane crossings will be difficult to
observe from Earth, because Saturn will be in
the sky mostly during the day. Earth observers
will not have another good edge-on view of Sat-
urn until 2038–39.
53. What do I do if I want to see Saturn’s
rings, but I don’t have a powerful enough
telescope?
Try to find someone who does have one. In
many communities there are clubs of amateur
astronomers, most of whom own their own tele-
scopes. These clubs often hold star parties in
which anyone is invited to come out and ob-
serve through the telescopes. Some universities
or communities have larger observatories that
hold periodic open houses for the public. More-
over, amateur and professional astronomers in
your area may be willing to conduct star parties
in conjunction with school open houses.
247
 Science museums and planetariums can be a
APPENDIX place to start for information about tracking
down an opportunity to view Saturn through a
1 telescope. National Astronomy Day, held every
year in April or May, is a good time to be on the
lookout for opportunities. Also, you can look in
the calendar sections of magazines such as As-
tronomy or Sky & Telescope for regional star par-
ties near you. The same two magazines may be
useful for finding good quality, secondhand
telescopes at bargain prices. See the Appendices
for resource information.
54. If I were on Saturn or Titan, could I see
Earth and its Moon? Would I need a tele-
scope?
The astronomer Christiaan Huygens saw
Saturn’s moon Titan from Earth with a 17th-
century telescope, using lenses a few inches ac-
ross. Earth’s Moon is about the size of Titan,
and Earth is about twice as large as Titan, so at
first glance it seems you could certainly detect
Earth and its Moon from Saturn with a tele-
scope of modest power. However, if you were to
try to look at Earth from Saturn, you’d be look-
ing almost directly at the Sun. Even though
Earth and the Moon would be large enough to
see in a dark nighttime sky, they would be very
difficult to detect in the Sun’s glare.
55. If I were standing on Titan, how would
Saturn look?
To see Saturn, you would need to be standing
on the side of Titan that always faces Saturn.
But even if you were doing that, Titan’s thick,
hazy atmosphere would prevent you from seeing
Saturn. If somehow you could see through the
clouds, the rings of Saturn would stretch across
about 15° of the sky. If you reach out your arm
fully and spread your fingers toward the sky, the
angle between your pinkie and your thumb is
also about 15°. Saturn and its rings would ap-
pear almost 30 times wider in the sky than the
Moon does from Earth!
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
The Cassini–Huygens Mission
56. Why are we sending a spacecraft and not
people to Saturn ?
Spacecraft are robots that represent humans in
space. Neither humans nor robots can survive
unprotected in the dangerous environment of
outer space, but humans require a greater degree
of protection and safety. Robotic spacecraft like
Voyager and Cassini have shields to protect
them from extremes of heat and cold, from in-
tense radiation, from the vacuum of space, and
from collisions with small particles. Astronauts
in the Space Shuttle also have these protections,
but even so they cannot stay in space very long.
The additional needs of people for long jour-
neys — for instance, oxygen, water, food, and
artificial gravity — make human space travel
cost a great deal more than robotic space travel.
Also, safety measures taken for human space-
flight are generally more costly than those
needed for robotic space travel.
Even if humans were more easily accommo-
dated as travelers in space, the Space Shuttle is
not designed to travel out of Earth orbit. The
Space Shuttle flies only about 600 km (370 mi)
above Earth’s surface. This is barely the distance
between Los Angeles and San Francisco. By
contrast, it is over 1 billion miles to Saturn from
Earth. We no longer have the ready capability
to send humans to Earth’s Moon, let alone to a
more distant planet. Time is also a consider-
ation. Even if the Cassini spacecraft were large
enough to carry humans, it would need to carry
enough food, water, and oxygen for the 7-year
trip to Saturn, plus several years exploring, and
finally the return to Earth.
If we cannot visit the planets in person, with
our own bodies, to see them with our own eyes,
how can we ever hope to learn anything about
248
 them? Robotic spacecraft offer an alternative to
APPENDIX human spaceflight and can more easily be built
to endure in the harsh environment of space.
1 only a spacecraft flying within the Saturn sys-
57. What will the Cassini robot do?
The Cassini spacecraft will make a 4-year scien-
tific tour of the Saturn system. The Cassini or-
biter will conduct long-term, detailed, close-up
studies of Saturn, its rings, its moons, and its
space environment. Cassini is the best-equipped
spacecraft we have ever sent to another world.
The Cassini orbiter carries six instruments to
“see” in four kinds of light (visible, infrared, ul-
traviolet, and radio). There are also instruments
for detecting dust particles, magnetic fields, and
charged particles such as protons and electrons.
The Cassini orbiter will release the Huygens
probe, which will parachute through Titan’s
hazy atmosphere to the surface. The Huygens
probe will carry a suite of instruments to mea-
sure various properties of Titan’s atmosphere
and surface. One of the probe’s instruments will
make more than 1,000 images of Titan’s surface
and clouds — sights never before seen by hu-
man beings!
58. What spacecraft have been to Saturn?
How have we gathered information about
Saturn up until now?
Saturn was first visited by Pioneer 11 in 1979
and later by Voyager 1 in 1980 and Voyager 2
in 1981. These spacecraft passed through the
Saturn system and made many extraordinary
observations and discoveries. Scientists have also
used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which
NASA placed in orbit around Earth in 1990, to
study Saturn. HST has observed storms in
Saturn’s atmosphere and detailed structure in its
rings. Using infrared cameras, HST has also de-
tected large bright and dark regions deep be-
neath Titan’s veil of haze. Scientists don’t know
yet what these features are — perhaps conti-
nents and ethane oceans?
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
There are many aspects of Saturn that cannot
be studied or detected by remote sensing tech-
niques such as using a telescope. For example,
tem can directly sense Saturn’s magnetic field.
Also, only from a spacecraft beyond Saturn can
we look back at the night side of Saturn (or its
moons) to collect data on such things as night-
time temperatures or how much sunlight is
blocked by the dust in Saturn’s rings.
59. What will Cassini learn that we do not
already know from Voyager and Hubble
Space Telescope data?
The Pioneer 11 and Voyager flybys were an ini-
tial reconnaissance of Saturn. The Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) has been used to detect pos-
sible continents or other large features on Titan’s
surface. Cassini is a follow-on to these missions,
but instruments on the Cassini orbiter are ca-
pable of much more detailed observations of the
planet, moons, and rings than either Voyager
or HST. The Cassini spacecraft will also have
4 years to study the Saturn system instead of a
few days as with a flyby mission like Voyager or
a few hours every few months as with HST.
In addition, the Huygens probe will parachute
into Titan’s atmosphere to the surface, and in-
struments on the probe will observe detailed
properties of an atmosphere and surface that
Voyager and Hubble could never have seen.
Cassini’s scientific objectives cannot be com-
pleted by HST because of HST’s huge distance
from Saturn and the very different instruments
that HST and Cassini carry.
60. Why care about the Cassini mission?
The Cassini spacecraft is a robotic ambassador
for all of humanity. It is an extension of our
senses to a distant, magnificent world full of
mysteries. Solving some of these mysteries has
the power to teach us about ourselves and our
place in the Universe. The Cassini mission is an
expression of our deep desire to learn — to
249
 cross the boundary between the known and un-
APPENDIX known. Thanks to the world’s myriad possibili-
ties for communicating what Cassini is doing,
1 through the Internet, newspapers, television, ra-
dio, and classrooms, it is possible for all of us to
share in this extraordinary adventure! How ex-
citing it will be at last to unveil some of the
mysteries of Saturn and Titan — and certainly
create just as many new mysteries as well.
61. Why is NASA’s mission to Saturn called
Cassini?
The Cassini spacecraft is named after the Ital-
ian–French astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini
(or Giovanni [Gian] Domenico Cassini), who
figured prominently in the earliest discoveries
about the Saturn system. The astronomer
Cassini made his observations of Saturn from
the Paris Observatory in the late 17th century.
He used a series of increasingly larger telescopes
to discover four of Saturn’s major moons:
Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys, and Dione. In 1675,
Cassini discovered that Saturn’s ring was split
into two parts by a division about 4,600 km
(2,900 mi) wide. The gap between the two parts
of the ring would become known as the Cassini
Division, and the rings were given separate
names.
Areas shown in gray represent the states and countries participating in the Cassini–Huygens mission.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
62. How much does the Cassini mission cost?
Who pays for it?
The total cost for the Cassini mission is about
$3.2 billion. This includes the Cassini orbiter,
the Huygens probe, the Titan IV launch ve-
hicle, and the United States’ portion of mission
operations and data analysis.
NASA projects are funded by the U.S. govern-
ment, and thus much of Cassini is paid for by
the taxpayers of the United States. The Cassini
mission involves extensive international collabo-
ration. The Huygens probe, the high-gain an-
tenna on the Cassini orbiter, and portions of
three science instruments were built in Europe,
and were paid for by the people of Europe. We
all have a vested interest in the success of the
Cassini mission!
63. How long does it take to plan and carry
out a mission like Cassini?
About 5 to 8 years are required from approval
to launch for a sophisticated mission like
Cassini. For example, Voyager 2 was approved
in May 1972 and launched in August 1977.
Cassini was approved in October 1989 and
launched in October 1997. Cassini is the last of
NASA’s series of giant missions to the outer
250
 planets of our Solar System. Smaller spacecraft
APPENDIX are being developed and launched in 2 to 3
years. In the case of Cassini, the mission is de-
1 signed to last at least 11 years after the launch:
7 years traveling to Saturn, and 4 years investi-
gating the Saturn system.

Planning and carrying out a mission like

Cassini requires several phases, which are
named as follows: Phase A, Concept Study;
Phase B, Definition and Preliminary Design;
Phase C, Detailed Design; Phase D, Develop-
ment through Launch and Instrument Check-
out; and Phase E, Mission Operations and Data
Analysis.

NASA defines the end of a spacecraft mission

according to a specific plan, but this doesn’t
mean the spacecraft won’t outlive that plan. For
example, although the grand scientific tours of
Voyager 1 and 2 are complete, flight controllers
Cassini–Huygens in High Bay 2 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
are still in touch with the two Voyager space-
craft as they hurtle away from the Solar System
science instruments (370 kg) and 3,130 kg of
toward interstellar space. Astronomers hope that
propellant. Before launch, more than half of
the Voyagers will eventually return data about
Cassini’s weight was rocket propellant! At the
the heliopause, which is the boundary between
surface of Earth, the Cassini spacecraft would
the region of space influenced by our Sun and
weigh about 12,400 pounds, or approximately
the region of space influenced by other stars.
6 tons. That’s about the weight of three or four
medium-sized cars!
The Spacecraft
65. How much wire is used in the Cassini
64. How big is the Cassini spacecraft? spacecraft?

Height and Width: Cassini is the largest inter-
planetary spacecraft ever built by the United
States. It is about the size of a school bus. The
spacecraft is about two stories tall (6.8 m, or
22 ft), and 4 m (13 ft) across. It would take
about 7 large adults with arms outstretched to
encircle Cassini.
Mass and Weight: The mass of the Cassini
spacecraft is 5,650 kg, which includes the
Huygens probe (370 kg), the Cassini orbiter’s
Engineers estimate that Cassini uses approxi-
mately 12 km (7.5 mi) of wiring to intercon-
nect its electrical components.
66. Is the Cassini spacecraft really all covered
with gold?
Much of Cassini is covered with gold-colored
material, but it’s not really gold. It’s a multilayer
fabric attached to the spacecraft like clothing to
protect it from extremes of hot and cold and
from impacts by small space rocks and dust in
space called micrometeoroids. The fabric looks
gold because the top layer is a translucent amber

251
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
 material called KAPTON®, which has a coating of
APPENDIX shiny aluminum. Together, they look like shiny
gold foil.
1 spacecraft small enough and light enough to be
In addition, a large portion of Cassini’s protec-
tive layers are graphite-filled blanketing. This
black covering protects Cassini’s science instru-
ments without interfering with their operations.
For example, gold blanketing near one of
Cassini’s cameras might cause unwanted reflec-
tions to appear in the images it makes.
Cassini–Huygens in the test chamber at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
67. Will the spacecraft use solar panels to
provide power to the instruments on Cassini?
No. Cassini uses radioisotope thermoelectric
generators, or RTGs. To identify the most ap-
propriate power source to run Cassini’s instru-
ments, radios, and computers, NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory conducted an in-depth
analysis of the available electrical power systems,
including systems that use solar energy. Cassini’s
instruments, radios, and computers require 600
to 700 watts. For comparison, the power de-
mand for an average American residential home
is about 1,400 watts. The challenge for Cassini’s
designers was that this power must be produced
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
reliably for many years at a distance that is 9.6
times farther from the Sun than Earth is. This
power must also be supplied while keeping the
launched from Earth.
If the Cassini spacecraft were equipped with the
highest efficiency solar cells available, such as
those developed by the European Space Agency,
it would make the spacecraft too heavy for
launch to Saturn. The resulting solar arrays
would cover an area larger than two tennis
courts! RTGs are thus the only feasible power
system for the Cassini–Huygens mission.
The RTGs start the mission providing about
820 watts of power, and end the mission pro-
viding about 650 watts. The power output de-
clines because RTGs generate energy from a
radioactive substance called plutonium that de-
cays over time. It is important to know that
Cassini’s three RTGs have nothing to do with
the launch or propulsion of the spacecraft.
68. How does an RTG work? If it involves
plutonium, is it dangerous?
An RTG uses the heat energy from a radioactive
source, plutonium (Pu-238). The radioactivity
generates heat, which in turn is converted to
electrical energy that powers Cassini’s instru-
ments, radios, and computers.
Although plutonium is indeed a very toxic sub-
stance if breathed into the lungs, Cassini’s
RTGs contain a heat-resistant, ceramic form of
it called plutonium dioxide. These ceramic
modules are designed and packaged to prevent
the formation of fine dust particles of pluto-
nium that would be harmful if breathed into
the lungs. Years of extensive safety testing and
analyses have demonstrated that RTGs are ex-
tremely rugged and resistant to a release of the
plutonium dioxide fuel, even in severe accident
environments. In October 1968, an Atlas rocket
carrying an RTG was destroyed shortly after
252
 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The
APPENDIX plutonium-containing portions of the RTG fell
into the ocean intact, and all the plutonium was
1 recovered and reused in a subsequent mission.
69. How well can Cassini aim its instru-
ments?
Some of Cassini’s instruments must be aimed
precisely to gather data. They do not swivel by
themselves but require the entire spacecraft to
point in the desired direction. The spacecraft
can point the instruments with an accuracy of
about 0.06° (1/17th of a degree). Once pointed,
the Cassini spacecraft is extremely stable.
The Science Instruments
70. What kinds of instruments does the
Cassini orbiter have? What do they do?
In some ways, the Cassini spacecraft has senses
better than our own. For example, Cassini can
“see” in wavelengths of light and energy that the
human eye cannot. (See the Appendices for an il-
lustration of the electromagnetic spectrum.)
The instruments can “feel” things about mag-
netic fields and tiny dust particles that no hu-
man hand could detect. The Cassini spacecraft
has been designed with 18 major science instru-
ment packages: 12 on the Cassini orbiter, and
six on the Huygens probe.
Even without knowing the details of all of the
instruments and the nature of what they are
measuring or detecting, it is still possible to dis-
cern several things about them from their de-
scriptions. For example, you can classify the
science instruments in a way that enables you to
make a comparison with the way your own
senses operate. Your eyes and ears are “remote
sensing” devices because you can receive infor-
mation from remote objects without being in
direct contact with them. Your senses of touch
and taste are “direct sensing” devices. Your nose
can be construed as either a remote or direct
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
sensing device. You can certainly smell the apple
pie across the room without having your nose in
direct contact with it, but the molecules carry-
ing the scent do have to make direct contact
with your sinuses. The Cassini instruments are:
1. Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Makes images in visible light, and some infrared
and ultraviolet light. The ISS has a camera that
can take a broad, wide-angle picture and a cam-
era that can record small areas in fine detail. En-
gineers anticipate that ISS will return hundreds
of thousands of images of Saturn and its rings
and moons! [Remote sensing / sight]
2. Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR)
Produces maps of Titan’s surface and measures
the height of surface objects (like mountains
and canyons) by bouncing radio signals off of
Titan’s surface and timing their return. This is
similar to listening for the echo of your voice
across a canyon to tell how wide the canyon is.
Radio waves can penetrate the thick veil of haze
surrounding Titan. In addition to bouncing ra-
dio waves, the RADAR instrument will listen
for radio waves that Saturn or its moons may be
producing. [Remote active sensing / listening to
echo; Remote passive sensing / sight]
3. Radio Science Subsystem (RSS)
Uses radio antennas on Earth to observe the
way radio signals from the spacecraft change as
they are sent through objects, such as Titan’s at-
mosphere or Saturn’s rings. RSS uses radio re-
ceivers and transmitters at three different
wavelengths. This gives detailed information on
the structure of the rings and atmosphere. [Re-
mote sensing / sight or hearing]
4. Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS)
Analyzes charged particles (like protons and
heavier ions) and neutral particles (like atoms)
near Titan and Saturn to learn more about their
atmospheres. [Direct and remote sensing /
smell]
253
 5. Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer
APPENDIX (VIMS)
Makes pictures using visible and infrared light
1 to learn more about the composition of moon
surfaces, the rings, and the atmospheres of Sat-
urn and Titan. VIMS also observes the sunlight
and starlight that passes through the rings to
learn more about ring structure. [Remote sens-
ing / sight]
other solar systems. [Direct sensing / touch or
taste]
8. Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS)
Receives and measures the radio signals coming
from Saturn, including the radio waves given
off by the interaction of the solar wind with
Saturn and Titan. [Direct & remote sensing /
many senses]

6. Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) 9. Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS)

Measures the infrared light coming from an ob- Measures the energy and electrical charge of
ject (such as an atmosphere or moon surface) to particles such as electrons and protons that the
learn more about its temperature and what it’s instrument encounters. [Direct sensing / touch,
made of. [Remote sensing / sight] taste, smell]

7. Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) 10. Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS)

Senses the size, speed, and direction of tiny dust Makes images of the ultraviolet light reflected
grains near Saturn. Some of these particles are off an object, such as the clouds of Saturn and/
orbiting Saturn, while others may come from or its rings, to learn more about their structure
and composition. [Remote sensing / sight]

DUAL TECHNIQUE RADIO DETECTION

MAGNETOMETER (MAG) AND RANGING
ON BOOM (RADAR)
RADIO SCIENCE
SUBSYSTEM (RSS)

ION AND NEUTRAL

MASS SPECTRO-
RADIO AND PLASMA METER (INMS)
WAVE SCIENCE (RPWS)
CASSINI PLASMA
IMAGING SCIENCE SPECTROMETER
SUBSYSTEM (ISS) (CAPS)
VISIBLE AND INFRARED
MAPPING SPECTROMETER
MAGNETOSPHERIC
(VIMS)
IMAGING
COMPOSITE INFRARED INSTRUMENT (MIMI)
SPECTROMETER (CIRS)
ULTRAVIOLET IMAGING
SPECTROGRAPH (UVIS)

The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft.

254
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
 11. Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI)
APPENDIX Produces images and other data about the par-
ticles trapped in Saturn’s huge magnetic field,
1 or magnetosphere. [Direct and remote sensing
/ sight and smell]
12. Dual Technique Magnetometer (MAG)
Measures the strength and direction of the
magnetic field around Saturn. The magnetic
fields are generated partly by the intensely hot
molten core at Saturn’s center. Measuring the
magnetic field is one of the ways to probe the
core, even though it is far too hot and deep to
actually visit. [Direct and remote sensing /
touch and smell]
71. How well can the Cassini cameras see?
Cassini’s highest-resolution camera is able to
see a penny, 1.5 cm (0.5 in) across, from a dis-
tance of nearly 4 km (2.5 mi).
72. How do we know what color a planet or
moon really is?
In several of Cassini’s cameras, color filters can
be placed in and out of the cameras so that the
detector sees only one color at a time. Each im-
age is then transmitted to Earth. Image pro-
cessing computers on Earth combine the data
to recreate the image in its original colors. Our
eyes work in a similar way: we can really see
images just in three primary colors — red,
green, and blue. Our brains combine these
three colors to make other colors, such as
purple, yellow, and orange.
73. What does the Huygens probe do?
Soon after arriving in the Saturn system, the
Cassini orbiter will release the Huygens probe,
which will descend into the atmosphere of Ti-
tan — Saturn’s largest moon. The Huygens
probe, built by the European Space Agency,
carries six instruments to collect data on Titan’s
clouds, atmosphere, and surface.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
Rendition of the Huygens probe being released above Titan.
The 320 kg probe is built a little bit like a clam:
it’s hard on the outside, to protect the delicate
instruments on the inside. The shell must be
built so it can survive the 20,000 km/hr
(13,000 mi/hr) rush when it first hits the atmo-
sphere, and the 12,000 °C (22,000 °F) tempera-
tures as the friction from Titan’s atmosphere
violently slows it down.
As the 2.7 m (8.9 ft) diameter probe enters
Titan’s atmosphere, it will begin taking mea-
surements in the haze layer above the cloud
tops. During its 2.5-hour descent — first on a
main parachute and later on a smaller “drogue”
parachute — various instruments will measure
the temperature, pressure, density, and compo-
sition of the atmosphere. As the Huygens probe
finally breaks through the bottom layer of
clouds, a camera with 11 simultaneous viewing
directions will capture panoramic images of
Titan’s surface.
The probe’s instruments will also measure prop-
erties of Titan’s surface as it descends and possi-
bly after landing — if the probe survives the
impact with the surface. The probe lands rela-
tively hard, at about 25 km/hr (15 mi/hr) and
thus may not survive the landing.
255
 74. What kinds of instruments does the
Huygens probe have?
APPENDIX
The Huygens probe carries six instruments. As
1 the probe falls through the atmosphere toward
Titan’s surface, some of the instruments will be
busily monitoring the atmosphere by looking
out windows in the probe or “sniffing” the at-
mosphere through holes. Other instruments will
start working after the probe lands — or floats
— on Titan. Radios on the probe will send back
data to the Cassini orbiter. These are the instru-
ments on the Huygens probe:
1. Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer
(GCMS)
Analyzes the amounts of various gases in Titan’s
atmosphere. It will look for organic molecules
that may indicate interesting chemistry happen-
ing in Titan’s atmosphere, as well as simpler
molecules that will help scientists understand
how Titan formed. [Direct sensing / smell]
2. Aerosol Collector and Pyrolyser (ACP)
Detects the particles in Titan’s thick, hazy
clouds. The ACP might help detect the gases
and clouds that would be spewed by any active
volcanoes on Titan. [Direct sensing / smell]
3. Descent Imager / Spectral Radiometer (DISR)
Takes pictures of Titan as the probe descends
toward the surface. It also measures how Titan’s
clouds dim the Sun’s light. This will help as-
tronomers understand how Titan is heated by
the Sun. [Remote sensing / sight]
4. Huygens Atmosphere Structure Instrument
(HASI)
Watches for lightning and listens for thunder in
Titan’s clouds. Using the probe’s batteries for
power, HASI will also create its own very tiny
lightning bolts to explore how Titan’s atmo-
sphere interacts with electricity. [Remote sens-
ing / sight, hearing; direct sensing / touch]
5. Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE)
Measures the speeds of Titan’s winds. Does Ti-
tan have huge hurricanes, or is it a relatively
calm place? Maybe, like Earth, it’s windy at
some altitudes and more calm at others. This
instrument is so sensitive that it might also
measure the probe gently swinging below its
parachute! [Direct sensing / touch, balance]

DOPPLER WIND EXPERIMENT (DWE)

HUYGENS ATMOSPHERE STRUCTURE INSTRUMENT (HASI)

GAS CHROMATOGRAPH AND

MASS SPECTROMETER (GCMS)

DESCENT IMAGER / SPECTRAL AEROSOL COLLECTOR SURFACE-SCIENCE

RADIOMETER (DISR) AND PYROLYSER (ACP) PACKAGE (SSP)

Instruments on the two sides of the Huygens probe.

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 6. Surface-Science Package (SSP) batteries and radio would not operate well, and
APPENDIX This set of eight instruments examines the the probe would not be able send information
probe’s landing site — whether rocks, snow, back to the Cassini orbiter.
1 “goo,” or a lake. The SSP has detectors to mea-
sure how hard the probe hits, the temperature,
The People of the Cassini Team
the speed of sound in Titan’s atmosphere, and
the type of liquid in which the probe may be 77. How many people have worked on
floating. [Direct sensing / touch, hearing, taste] Cassini?
At its peak, Cassini’s development involved
75. What happens to the Huygens probe after about 4,500 people, including 3,000 in the
it lands on Titan?
U.S. and 1,500 in European countries. This
The Huygens probe may survive landing on
includes engineers, scientists, and many other
solid ground, ice, or even liquid. Engineers de-
people at universities, research institutions, and
signed it to float! Many scientists theorize that
in industry. These people worked in 32 U.S.
Titan may be covered by lakes or oceans of
states and 16 European countries.
methane or ethane, so the Huygens probe is de-
signed to function whether it goes “splash” or
“splat.” One instrument on board will tell us if
Huygens is bobbing in liquid, and other instru-
ments on board will tell us what that liquid is
made of. If the battery-powered probe survives
its landing, it will send measurements from
Titan’s surface until its batteries die or the
Cassini orbiter flies out of radio contact — for
up to 30 minutes.

After the probe runs out of battery power, it

could sit wherever it lands for thousands of
years. It could be caught in a landslide or an
avalanche, if such phenomena occur on Titan!
A life-size model of Cassini–Huygens at JPL, with a few of the
Huygens could wash up on some frigid Titanic thousands of Cassini team members.
beach. Or, it could land on a methane iceberg
and float endlessly on an ethane sea. Wherever Another way of expressing the magnitude of the
it lands, organic chemical compounds falling human effort involved is to consider the num-
from Titan’s sky will likely rain down on it. Like ber of workyears needed to prepare Cassini for
a car parked outdoors in Los Angeles for too launch. One workyear is equivalent to 1 person
long, Huygens eventually would be coated with working full-time for 1 year. Preparing the
the residue of this light brown, smog-like goo. Cassini mission for launch took about 13,000
Maybe in the far future, we will return to Titan workyears of effort — almost half of what it
to find out what became of the Huygens probe. must have taken to build the Great Pyramid of
Cheops at Giza!
76. If the Huygens probe were to sink, would
there be any way to send information back?
No. If the probe were to sink in cold liquid
ethane, which may well be present on Titan, the

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Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
 78. Who manages the Cassini Project?
APPENDIX The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division
of the California Institute of Technology, man-
1 ages the Cassini Project. JPL is under contract
with NASA to design and fly robotic space mis-
sions. JPL is especially famous for its work in
planetary science, including the Voyager mis-
sions to the outer planets and Pathfinder to
Mars.
79. What sorts of people work on a space
project like Cassini?
It is a monumental task to design, build, launch,
and fly a sophisticated robot like Cassini. A
great diversity of talented people are required to
make it happen. Most of those who work on the
Cassini project are scientists and engineers, but
the project also involves people such as com-
puter programmers, educators, machinists, elec-
tricians, secretaries, security guards, and travel
agents.
STRUCTURE
TELE-
COMMUNICATIONS
SCIENCE
END-END INFO
SYSTEM
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
80. How could I prepare for a career involv-
ing a space project?
In preparation for careers involving a space
project, it is wise to take all the courses you can
in school, especially math, science, and English
courses. Go to college if possible, and pick a
field of study that particularly interests you. Sci-
ence and engineering are the most likely path-
ways to becoming involved in a space
exploration project, but there are other ways as
well. Seek out someone who is already in a
space-related career and talk to them about
what skills and attitudes they needed to be suc-
cessful. It is helpful to become aware of, and be-
gin to cultivate, some of the useful job skills
that may not necessarily be taught in school. In
addition to having basic mathematical skills and
some sort of technical training, it is helpful to
be enthusiastic, creative, able to learn new
things, speak and write well, use a computer,
work well in a team, and persevere through
problems.
POWER
PROPULSION
258
 Launch and Navigation
APPENDIX

81. When was Cassini launched?

1
Cassini was scheduled to be launched on 6 Oc-
tober 1997. Several weeks before launch, engi-
neers detected a minor problem with insulation
inside the Huygens probe, and program man-
agers rescheduled the launch for 13 October
1997. After the launch was postponed once
more due to technical problems, Cassini was
sent on its journey to Saturn at 4:43 in the
morning on 15 October 1997, from Cape
Canaveral, Florida.

82. Which launch vehicle did Cassini use?

A Titan IV rocket launched Cassini on its way
to Saturn. Cassini has a mass of 5,650 kg, and
thus it takes a mighty force to free the space-
craft from Earth’s gravity. The Titan IV is the
most powerful expendable launch vehicle in the
US fleet. It was built by Martin Marietta —
now Lockheed Martin — under contract to the
U.S. Air Force.
The Titan IV did not send Cassini by itself.
Rather, the Titan launched both Cassini and an
upper stage rocket called a Centaur. The Cen-
taur helped to place Cassini into a temporary
orbit around Earth called a parking orbit. From
there, the Centaur waited until Cassini was in
the right position, and then fired its engines to
propel Cassini away from Earth and toward Ve-
nus for Cassini’s first gravity assist. After firing
its engines, the Centaur disconnected from
Cassini and the spacecraft began its long,
unpowered coast through space. The Centaur
was developed by General Dynamics and is the
most powerful upper stage in the world.
The Titan IV launch vehicle, including the
Centaur, has a mass of 4.4 million kilograms,
of which about 90%, or 4 million kilograms, is
fuel! The 370 kilograms of Cassini’s scientific
instruments seems amazingly tiny next to the
mass of the launch vehicle.
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
The Titan IV vehicle launching Cassini.
83. How much rocket fuel does Cassini carry
in order to complete its mission at Saturn?
Cassini carries about 3,000 kilograms of fuel
(or propellant). Some of the fuel will be used to
direct the spacecraft’s course on its way to Sat-
urn, some will be used to slow down the space-
craft as it arrives at Saturn, and some will be
used while touring the Saturn system. Well over
99% of Cassini’s trip, however, will be an
unpowered coast through space.
84. When does Cassini arrive at Saturn?
Cassini is due to arrive at Saturn on 1 July
2004. Just before Cassini’s closest approach to
Saturn, the spacecraft fires its engines for over
an hour to slow itself down enough to be cap-
tured into orbit around Saturn. Cassini will be
moving so fast — 32 km/sec (71,000 mi/hr) —
that if it didn’t fire its engines, it would cruise
past Saturn and never return.
259

APPENDIX
1 heaviest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched
Artist’s concept of Saturn orbit insertion.
85. How long does the Cassini mission last?
The Cassini mission is planned to last a total of
11 years: 7 years traveling from Earth to Saturn,
and 4 years touring the Saturn system. However,
the spacecraft could continue to send informa-
tion back to Earth for many more years.
86. Why does it take so long to get to
Saturn?
Cassini is an extremely heavy spacecraft — the
by the United States. Because it is so heavy, it
was not feasible to boost it to Saturn directly.
Instead, the spacecraft was launched inward to-
ward Venus, and has two Venus flybys, one
Earth flyby, and one Jupiter flyby on the way to
Saturn. Each of these flybys increases the speed
of the spacecraft using a gravity assist. (This
kind of flyby is sometimes called a swingby.)
Cassini will eventually get to Saturn, but it
takes time to speed up the spacecraft and get it
going fast enough.

ORBIT OF SATURN

VENUS 2
SWINGBY SATURN ARRIVAL
24 JUNE 1999 1 JULY 2004
ORBIT OF EARTH

VENUS 1
SWINGBY
DEEP-SPACE
26 APRIL 1998
MANEUVER
3 DECEMBER 1998

EARTH
ORBIT OF VENUS
SWINGBY
18 AUGUST 1999

PERIHELIA JUPITER
SWINGBY
27 MARCH 1998 0.67 AU LAUNCH 30 DECEMBER 2000
29 JUNE 1999 0.72 AU 15 OCTOBER 1997

ORBIT OF JUPITER

Cassini–Huygens’ interplanetary trajectory.

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 87. Couldn’t we get to Saturn faster if we
flew directly to Saturn instead of wrapping
APPENDIX
around other planets?

1 Yes, but we would need a much more powerful

launch vehicle or a much smaller spacecraft
than Cassini. Given the launch technology and
the mass of Cassini, using gravity assists from
other planets is absolutely necessary to increase
Cassini’s speed. Without using gravity assists
from other planets, or a larger launch vehicle, it
just wouldn’t be possible to get Cassini to Sat-
urn at all, in any amount of time!
The increase in speed provided by the gravity
assists from Venus, Earth, and Jupiter would
otherwise require an additional 3.6 million kilo-
grams of fuel. During Cassini’s 4-year tour of
Saturn, the 40 gravity assists from Titan will
provide the equivalent of another 49 million ki-
lograms of fuel. This is over 12 times as much
fuel as the Titan IV launch vehicle carries!
88. What is gravity assist?
Gravity assist is a way of using the gravitational
pull of a massive planet on a spacecraft in order
to transfer momentum and energy from the
planet to the spacecraft that is flying (or “swing-
ing”) by it. When the Voyager spacecraft flew by
Jupiter, it gained 16 kilometers per second of
speed relative to the Sun, at a cost of initially re-
ducing Jupiter’s orbital speed by about 30 cm
(1 ft) per trillion years. Exploration of the outer
planets would not be possible without gravity
assist, unless we were to use smaller payloads
and mightier rockets than currently exist.
Cassini gained about 6 km/sec relative to the
Sun at the first Venus swingby, 7 km/sec at the
second Venus flyby, 6 km/sec at Earth, and will
gain about 2 km/sec at Jupiter.
89. How close does Cassini come to Earth
during its flyby?
Cassini flies about 1,170 km (720 miles) over
Earth during its flyby on August 18, 1999 —
higher than the Hubble Space Telescope’s
Artist’s concepts of the Venus flyby (left) and the
Earth flyby (right).
altitude of 600 km (370 miles). Cassini swings
by Jupiter at a much greater distance of almost
10 million km (6 million mi).
90. Can we see the Cassini spacecraft from
Earth during its flyby of Earth?
Yes, but at Cassini’s closest approach to Earth, it
travels very fast and is just about to pass into
Earth’s shadow. It would be visible for about 30
seconds as a moving point of light about as
bright as stars of the Big Dipper. If you were at
a location on Earth near Cassini’s path, Cassini
would come from the west at dusk and traverse
about half the sky before passing into Earth’s
shadow. Cassini would emerge from Earth’s
shadow and reappear about 24 minutes later. At
this point, Cassini would be much more distant
from Earth and so would appear much dimmer,
although you could still see it with binoculars if
you knew where to look.
91. How far does Cassini travel from Earth to
Saturn?
The direct distance from Earth to Saturn varies
from about 1.2 billion km (750 million mi) to
1.6 billion km (980 million mi), depending on
where Saturn and the Earth are on their laps
around the Sun. Due to its flybys of Venus,
Earth, and Jupiter, Cassini actually travels more
than 3 billion km (2 billion mi) to reach Saturn.
Once there, Cassini travels another 1.7 billion
km (1.1 billion mi) on its tour of the Saturn
system.

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Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
 92. How fast does Cassini go?
APPENDIX During the Cassini mission, the spacecraft
reaches relative speeds of 13 km/sec (or about
1 29,000 mi/hr) flying by Venus (equivalent to
flying from Los Angeles to Boston in under
5 minutes!), and 19 km/sec (43,000 mi/hr) fly-
ing by Earth. While cruising to Saturn, Cassini’s
speed is as high as 32 km/sec (71,000 mi/hr). At
this speed, even the gravity of Saturn is not
enough to capture it — Cassini must fire its en-
gines to slow down at Saturn, or it would con-
tinue on past the planet and never return.
93. How close does Cassini fly to Saturn’s
cloudtops?
Upon reaching Saturn, Cassini swings close to
the planet, to an altitude only one-sixth the
diameter of Saturn itself — about 20,000 km
(12,000 mi). This begins the first of more than
70 orbits during its 4-year mission, and it’s the
closest that Cassini ever gets to the planet.
94. What happens to Cassini after it com-
pletes the Saturn tour?
After completing its tour, the spacecraft will
continue orbiting Saturn. If all goes well during
the mission, there should be enough attitude-
control propellant and electrical power for the
spacecraft to continue to relay data back to
Earth for many years (just as Magellan did and
the two Voyagers still do). However, budget
constraints may limit how long NASA is able to
operate the spacecraft after the end of the mis-
sion in 2008. Cassini will continue to orbit Sat-
urn until the spacecraft runs out of propellant.
Before it runs out of propellant, flight control-
lers will probably place Cassini in an orbit that
minimizes its chances of colliding with any of
the moons for a long time.

TO SUN

A sample Saturn orbital tour. The view is from above Saturn’s north pole. This type of diagram
is called a petal plot because each orbit resembles the petal of a flower. The range of orbit
orientations allows a detailed survey of Saturn’s magnetosphere and atmosphere.

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APPENDIX

1
OBJECT OF
INTEREST CASSINI
SPACECRAFT

JET PROPULSION
LABORATORY
SCIENTIFIC WORLDWIDE
DEEP COMMUNITY GENERAL
SPACE PUBLIC
NETWORK

Data flow from Saturn to Cassini to Earth.

planned to use a fixed antenna before the failure

Communications and Science Data
of Galileo’s folding antenna. The Cassini high-
95. How long does it take for a radio signal gain antenna, which was provided by the Italian
to travel between Earth and Saturn? Space Agency, has no moving parts. The failure
A signal takes between 70 and 90 minutes to of Galileo’s antenna triggered an intense analysis
reach Earth from Saturn. The exact time de- of the Cassini spacecraft to avoid other types of
pends on the ever-changing locations of Earth mechanical failures.
and Saturn in their orbital laps around the Sun.
97. How much power do Cassini’s radio
Radio waves travel at the speed of light, or
transmitters put out?
300,000 km/sec (186,000 mi/sec).
Cassini’s radio transmitters send out about
96. Has anything been learned from the 20 watts of power — about the same amount
failure of the high-gain antenna on the of power it takes to operate a refrigerator’s light
Galileo spacecraft which has altered the
bulb.
design of Cassini’s high-gain antenna?
The Galileo spacecraft’s high-gain (or main) an- 98. What is the Deep Space Network?
tenna was designed to unfurl itself like an um-
The Deep Space Network (DSN) is a collection
brella while in flight to Jupiter. When flight
of huge, dish-shaped radio antennas distributed
controllers commanded it to open, it opened
around the world that send and receive mes-
partially but not enough for it to be of use
sages to and from spacecraft like Cassini.
transmitting data between the spacecraft and
the ground. The Cassini mission had already

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APPENDIX
If you could place one of NASA’s 70-m Deep Space Network antennas inside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California,
it would look like this.
Cassini will regularly use the Deep Space
Network’s largest antennas, which are 70 m
(230 ft) in diameter — nearly the size of a foot-
ball field. The DSN’s large radio dishes must be
pointed to within a small fraction of a degree of
a spacecraft’s location to be able to communi-
cate with it.
99. What if something goes wrong with the
spacecraft? Do we have to wait an hour to
learn about it?
Yes, we would have to wait to learn about a
problem, but Cassini might be able to take care
of itself in the meantime. Much planning has
been done for times when things don’t go as
planned. Many of Cassini’s parts have backups
that can be activated from Earth, or in some
cases turned on automatically by the spacecraft.
For example, Cassini has two radio receivers. If
one should fail, the spacecraft’s computers
would realize that they haven’t heard from Earth
recently, and automatically switch to the backup
receiver to listen for further instructions.
Cassini’s capabilities for detecting and handling
problems by itself are collectively called “fault
protection.”
Saturn Educator Guide • Cassini Program website — http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/educatorguide • EG-1999-12-008-JPL
100. How much science data will Cassini
return?
On a busy day at Saturn, Cassini could trans-
mit up to 500 megabytes (500,000,000 bytes,
or about a CD-ROM’s worth) of information
to Earth. More than 300 gigabytes of science
data will be sent back to Earth during the
mission. This would fill more than 400 CD-
ROMs — a stack of CDs that would be
higher than 4 m (13 ft). It is also about the
amount of information in 2,400 sets of the
Encyclopedia Britannica.
101. How many pictures will be sent back
from Cassini–Huygens?
Engineers estimate that the Cassini mission
will return as many as a million images of Sat-
urn, the rings, Titan, and the other moons.
This includes more than a thousand images
taken by the Huygens probe of scenes never
before seen by humans.
264